Beyond the Firefly Field

by Munzing, R. E.

  Terrified, Penny exploded with a short, reactive scream. SanDroMonEnLor turned quickly and took another swing at the creature. But it was too late—the creature landed directly on SeeLee, and Penny screamed again.

  Up the Spiral Staircase

  As Penny's scream rang in their ears, SeeLee took half-steps backward, raising her arms as if to ward off the springing creature. Karl and Ron turned to leave, but the door had closed, and there was no doorknob in sight. None could be seen, nor hinges, nor seams. Karl and Ron crouched down, their eyes darting every which way. Clayton, Brian, and the twins stood rooted in place.

  The small, cat-sized creature was clutching SeeLee's throat. She reached to grab it, but the creature escaped and leapt to her shoulder. From that perch, it stared directly and intently at Penny, who was standing closest to SeeLee and would certainly be claimed as its next victim.

  A scream stuck in her constricting throat, and Penny, more frightened than she had ever been in her life, was unable to move. This was just too much! She could deal with seeing fairies and even being the same size as her winged friends. She could deal with walking in the air with them. And she had just finished dealing with getting even smaller than she had ever expected. But attacking creatures? Too much!

  SeeLee's hand sprang up as if to capture the creature, but instead she began petting its back lovingly. Glowing green-ringed eyes closed in contentment, and a gurgling, purring sound came from deep within the creature's belly. Its eyes quickly opened again to stare at Penny, who now figured the creature to be some kind of monkey.

  As SeeLee turned toward Penny, the creature nimbly climbed down from her shoulder to her cradled arm. An exceptionally long, black tail unfurled itself, then snaked around SeeLee's wrist several times before the creature lay down. After seeing its body prone, Penny decided it wasn't quite a monkey—it was something she had never seen before.

  “Cheela!” SeeLee cried in an admonishing tone. Since she was coddling the creature, any scolding in her voice was ignored as the purr-gurgling continued.

  “You know you're not supposed to scare Grandfather!”

  The creature looked lovingly at SeeLee and gurgled, “Lor.”

  “Cursed bligervin!” the old fairy complained after regaining some composure.

  “They are not belligerent vermin, Grandfather,” SeeLee insisted in the creature's defense.

  “Grand,” Cheela gurgled.

  “We should have left them in the caves where we found them being killed by the nermleks,” he retorted, and walked off mumbling to himself.

  SeeLee quickly explained, “This is Cheela. She's my churla.”

  Cheela, with a body now looking more like a squirrel's, got up and restlessly shifted her weight from foot to foot, and pointed at the group with a tiny finger of its monkey-like hand.

  “These are my friends. They're humans,” SeeLee said.

  With jerky head movements, Cheela looked at each of them, then murmured, “Mans,” in a water-gurgled voice.

  Overjoyed that it wasn't an attacking creature, Penny quickly recovered. “How beautiful, and it talks. You're so cute!” Penny gushed, and held her arms open to embrace the small churla. It sprang toward her, only to flop down between Penny and SeeLee, dangling helplessly just below SeeLee's arm. The churla's tail was still wrapped around SeeLee's wrist. Curling upward, the churla grabbed her arm with its hand and flipped back up. The churla reached with both hands and tried tugging her tail loose. When this didn't work, she threw her hands into the air and let the tail slowly unwind itself, then sprang into Penny's waiting arms.

  “Cheela! You're so cute! Pretty Cheela, churla.” Penny cooed, bringing it to her face and gently hugging the tiny creature. Cheela arched her back and nuzzled her forehead against Penny's chin, then settled down on her arm for petting. Clayton slowly offered his hand to it, and Cheela gave a few sniffs before settling back down.

  “So, is this a descendant of the creatures you saved from the nermleks?” Brian asked.

  “Yes, they stayed with us all these thousands of years, even with everything we've been through. We help each other survive.”

  “How long do they live?” Karl asked.

  “Some have lived to be five hundred years old.”

  Lulled by the soft voices and gentle petting, Cheela closed her eyes while her throat made sounds like a babbling brook. This seemed to be a signal for the tip of her very long tail to wander off and do whatever it wanted. It soon went exploring on its own, discovering Clayton, who was standing closest to Penny. The tail explored his arm and followed it up to his shoulder before slowly inching down his chest to disappear into the pocket of his shirt. The tail pulled out of the pocket, clutching a baggie with two chocolate chip cookies inside, and brought the prize back to the churla for inspection.

  The rustling of the baggie so close to her head caused Cheela to open her eyes and give a startled look. She made a brief shriek and hopped away. Clayton was amazed—the tail seemed to have a mind of its own.

  “That's Clayton's,” SeeLee barked sharply. “Put it back right now.”

  “Ton's,” Cheela echoed as the tail brought the baggy to Clayton's shoulder. A loop of the tail opened his pocket, and the tip released the bag back into it. Then the tail hung expectantly on Penny's arm and waited for its next chance for adventure. Contentedly, Cheela lay on Penny's arm while SeeLee explained how she had acquired Cheela one hundred twenty-four years ago

  Cheela gave up on her nap shortly after SeeLee started her tale and decided to go exploring. She took the short leap from Penny's arms to Clayton's shoulder. He tilted his head away and raised his arms, not knowing what else to do. Standing on his shoulder, Cheela gripped his head for support and peered around his ears at the others. She sniffed noisily at his hair, while its tail explored the shape of his face. He gave a short giggle as the furry tail tickled his skin. The others soon got the same treatment. Just as SeeLee was finishing her story, Cheela bounced off Brian's shoulder into SeeLee's waiting arms. It was as if the churla knew she was finished, but then again, maybe Cheela knew the story by heart.

  “She seems to be pretty smart. Even her tail is smart,” Brian remarked.

  “Churlas are very smart and quite useful for fetching or carrying things. The tails actually aren't all that smart, and they frequently get into trouble.”

  “Were churlas bigger when you first met them?” Karl asked.

  “They have always been this small to us. So, I guess if we've gotten smaller over thousands of years, then they have, too.”

  “When you told us the reason fairies became smaller,” Clayton said, “we thought it was awful, but after hearing the incidents of persecution, it's even more awful. At least it's understandable now why you turned out the way you did.”

  “Yes, for thousands of years, we had to escape or hide from one creature or another,” SeeLee replied. “There are other river creatures we call ‘jurlugs.’ They came with us along with the churlas. They now live in the bottom parts of the tree where it is dark, cool, and wet.”

  SeeLee started walking further into the tree, and Cheela climbed to perch on her shoulder. The tunnel kept growing higher and wider as they approached a well-lit open area. At the end of the tunnel, they found themselves in a chamber, which was a cavernous, round, hollowed-out part of the tree trunk. The ceiling seemed to soar fifty feet above. Clayton knew his entire concept of size was skewed. He could no longer guess his size as he stood in the large room, but yet, he never felt himself changing.

  Everything seemed to be normal–as long as he didn't think about how much everything wasn't. A growing anxiety lurked in the back of his mind about their new vulnerability. Out of the blue, he wondered what his dad would think if he could see Penny and him now.

  Then he wondered how his father would tell his mother, imagining him saying, “Honey, the fairies shrunk the kids.” It was just too unbelievable to imagine, and it almost made him laugh. What a good movie this adventure would make. He woul
d be the star, of course, and Wendy would be his co-star.

  His eyes wandered around the chamber. The room measured about one hundred fifty feet across. Dozens of fairies filled the room, some sitting and others passing through. It reminded him of a big, bustling hotel lobby. A light dimly glowed from the wall far above their heads where a large piece of clear quartz was jammed into the tree trunk. The quartz was larger than him, and as the day's last bit of sunlight flickered through it, a dim but powerful radiance filled the chamber room.

  Small ledges and pockets along the walls contained moss or small flowers in vivid colors. On one of the wider ledges, fairies sat and chatted on a carpet of moss, while nearby another ledge held a few playful churlas.

  Cheela scampered from SeeLee's shoulder to cross the room and scaled the wall to join the churlas. Clayton noticed churlas riding on the shoulders of fairies, and dozens of churlas were busily climbing the walls and leaping between the ledges overflowing with flowers and draped with leafy vines. The ledges were built into a wall appearing smooth and shiny, and shaded with brown hues.

  “Look at Cheela hugging the other churlas,” Penny cried.

  “Churlas always hug and pat each other on the head,” SeeLee informed them. “They're very loving creatures.”

  Across from where they stood, and near the ceiling of the room, water splashed down the wall, hitting ledges and creating small pools. The water cascaded noisily from ledge to ledge before filling a shallow pool on the chamber floor. Several fairies waded in the pool and occasionally played under the waterfall. On either side of the pool there were tunnels for fairies to enter or exit the room. Fairies coming through the tunnels rested on benches placed along the walls or scattered around the chamber floor, examining the treasures in the bartering bags they carried.

  The adventurers, led by SeeLee, nearly reached the center of the room before stopping to take everything in. To the left of the waterfall, a stairway was carved into the wall, spiraling high in the chamber, then ending near the ceiling at the waterfall's mouth. The stairs were wide, protected by a railing appearing to be carved out of the tree. Two landings broke the continuous climb. Each had a room carved next to it. From their vantage point on the floor, the kids could see the first room had tables and chairs carved into it with shelves containing piles of fairy light. A few fairies stood at the tables, busily assembling boxes.

  Clayton's attention was drawn to a particularly dark tunnel opening into the large chamber.

  Ron mumbled, “What the…?”

  A strange creature lumbered out of a tunnel. Once it was in the lighted chamber, Clayton could see a beetle with a load of wood lashed to its back. A fairy, shorter than the beetle, walked next to the insect and spoke continuously as if directing it. Clayton could finally get a sense of his size. He figured he was about a quarter of an inch tall. While Clayton wondered if this knowledge really made him feel any better, the beetle, prodded by the fairy, started climbing the stairs.

  “They're going to the furniture factory,” Karl explained. “I saw beetles bringing in the wood while I was there. I don't know why they call it the furniture factory, though. They might start out building furniture, but they usually end up making boxes that unfold into lots of other things,” he said, sounding confused.

  “We call it a factory because the peepers tell us a factory is what humans call a place where things are made. The furniture is just the most complicated thing we make in our factory.”

  “Can we go to the furniture factory?” Penny asked, tugging at SeeLee's hand. Cheela had returned, using their joined hands as a bridge to climb between the two. Cheela was now tugging at her tail to free it from SeeLee's upper arm.

  Once freed, the churla climbed on Penny's shoulder and gurgled, “Wood.”

  “Yes,” SeeLee answered. “We can follow the beetle.”

  Standing on Penny's shoulder, with her arm loosely draped around her neck, Cheela leaned forward and pointed. “Stair,” she gurgled, seemingly excited about going to the furniture factory.

  Penny steadied the churla with her free hand. The others sauntered behind them, craning their necks to view the impressive chamber surrounding them. Arriving at the stairs, attention turned to climbing. This was followed by a chorus of “wows” as they caught a glimpse of the wall beside the stairs.

  A battle scene was deeply carved into the wood. The carving was done in panels and in such detail, that if you stared at it for long, it seemed to come alive. The carving appeared to be six feet high and ten feet long, with a few feet of smooth wood before the next carving appeared.

  The first panel presented hoards of horrible-looking creatures fighting several human-looking species. They climbed slowly as SeeLee gave a brief narration about each panel they passed. They asked questions about the creatures. SeeLee gave them names that they had never heard before. Most panels showed fighting or fleeing, though an occasional panel showed the fairies during times of peace.

  Fairy villages were often shown with festivals being celebrated. The dwellings were curvy-looking cottages with covered porches and stone chimneys. The houses contained no straight lines, blending in flawlessly with the nature around them. The edges were made to look like whatever surrounded the home, as if it were blossoming from it. Many homes were built into trees and seemed to be an extension of them. To Clayton's eyes, the villages seemed to be beautifully enchanting places; he knew the fairies were probably saddened to leave their homes when battles threatened.

  “There are the churlas!” Penny exclaimed as they came to another panel showing a raging battle. Cheela nestled back in Penny's arms after climbing on the others as they hiked the spiraling stairway. A deeply carved cutaway in the panel showed a string of caves. Each appeared smaller to convey distance as they angled up and across the wooden panel. Way up in the far upper corner, tiny fairies streamed out of a cave, while others were building a log pile over the cave's exit.

  “This is the escape SanDroMonEnLor told us about,” Penny said in awe. Clayton turned red when he realized what he had missed by not listening to the old fairy's story.

  “Those must be the nermleks,” Paul said.

  “That's really gruesome,” Brian whispered, pointing to a scene in the largest carved cave. The carving showed a fairy being savagely eaten by a nermlek, while another monster was grappling the hapless fairy to grab a bite. Around them, masses of nermleks were devouring countless animals.

  “Eeeww!” Penny cried, wishing she hadn't seen that part. “Don't look at this one, Cheela,” she warned, protectively rotating the little creature away from the carving. The grisly panel also showed fairies and churlas flying through the air after being viciously clubbed by the nermleks' massive hand weapons. The group hurried off to the next panel.

  This panel showcased a village of tree houses. A collective sigh of relief was heard as the group stared at a gentle, peaceful scene. The closest tree house featured a cutaway view of fairies and churlas playing games and chasing each other. Other tree houses were carved smaller and smaller as they poked out of forested hills in the distance. The center of the panel featured a festive gathering with much activity. Fairies were eating, drinking, playing, and competing in group games. However, as the cyclorama unfolded, the fairies were once again fighting. This time, they were battling the much larger humans. The panel concluded at the first stair landing, and everyone hurried into the small room, glad to escape the message of the last wooden glyptic.

  Inside the landing room, benches were attached to three six-foot-long tables. A fairy presided over each table, and pieces of wood cut in every imaginable shape were piled in front of him. They were busily trying to fit the stray pieces into assembled clusters to invent something useful.

  A fairy entered the room after descending the stairs with a load of wood haphazardly bundled in his arms. Pieces of wood constantly fell from his overloaded arms, and he stooped to retrieve each one. Only ten steps separated the fairy's load from the bin on the side of the table, a
nd the fairy seemed determined to deliver the entire load all at once or not at all. Clayton assumed it was a helper fairy, and his guess was confirmed when SeeLee introduced him as Helper Jence.

  As SeeLee explained the other fairies' activities, she pulled the protesting Jence over to the wood bin and tugged the load out of his arms, dumping it into the bin. Jence's face lit up with a smile as he quickly picked up the dropped wood and was able to complete his task. His face beaming with pride, Jence said his goodbyes and tripped and stumbled up the steps to fetch another load.

  “Sometimes we have to help the helpers,” she explained.

  “Can we try putting something together with the leftover pieces of wood?” Karl asked.

  “Of course,” SeeLee was barely able to utter before the group rushed past her to find a seat at the tables. The fairies graciously backed away, and the kids were soon busy pulling and pushing, twisting and turning, and poking and prodding the wood to see what they could make. Grooves in the wood were cut so they could interlock. After a flurry of activity, only Karl proudly displayed a finished project.

  “Big deal!” Penny protested. “So you made a bench.”

  Everyone looked at Karl. His bench had a back rest, and two armrests separated the bench into three seats. He had a satisfied smirk on his face, beaming with pride. “Not just a bench,” he corrected, as he pushed some of the pieces, turning the bench into a rocking chair.

  Penny was finally impressed and climbed into the rocker as Karl stood up to take a bow. The fairies were also very impressed.

  “That's very good, Karl,” SeeLee praised, “but don't ever try anything like that in the furniture factory or they'll never let you leave.”

  “You're kidding, aren't you?”

  “This time I'm not sure. Let's hope we don't have to find out.”

  After saying goodbye, the group headed up the stairs, leaving the fairies to study the simplicity of Karl's chair.